Two words: That Sucked

All the dogs made it to the Chicago area safely.  It was a LONG drive.  We went completely unprepared since we've never transported one dog, let alone seven.  Obviously, I didn't go to sleep so we got started a little earlier than usual.  I was thinking I could get to the shelter, pick up the dogs and go.  Well, the woman at the front desk was very unfriendly and unhelpful, refusing to open the doors until 9am, as that's when they open.  I guess it doesn't matter that I was helping them by taking seven dogs off their hands.  They brought out a toy poodle first that was filthy and told me he would probably be good the whole way.  Probably my ass.  Then came a little terrier, who was the cleanest of all the dogs.  Finally, five LARGE puppies.  We had no crates, nothing.  I made a call to one of our volunteers who regularly does transports and has many crates and we headed in her direction.  In the ten or so minutes it takes to get there from the shelter, the puppies decided to have diarrhea butt all over the backseat and then of course they walked in it, spreading it further through the car.  The poodle was a pain in the butt.  He kept trying to hump the terrier (which was on my lap) and when he wasn't doing that, he was trying to attack him.  We finally get to the volunteer's house and there's only one crate that will fit in our car and it will only hold three of the five puppies.  I was not about to leave her house without all those pups in crates.  We grabbed to cat carriers and managed to work places for them to go in the car.  You should've seen how many double takes we got from truckers on the expressway.  She also helped me clean the pooh from the car and let us borrow blankets and towels in case of further incidents.  She really was a life saver this morning and I made sure to thank her several times as well as through the volunteer email group.  Finally, we were on our way.  It smelled awful.  They didn't bother to wash these dogs... well ever.  All the puppies have the beginning of kennel cough, as well as the poodle.  They vaccinate for that but not until the day they leave so the entire time they are in the shelter, they are exposed to it.  We had a few more incidents with the poodle and terrier but nothing major.  The only person in the car not cramped and uncomfortable was Jasmine whose carseat provided her with ample room.  She whined... a lot.  We had her dvd player with us and she watched the same movie three times but really started getting grumpy the closer we got to Chicago.  She wanted to go to grandma's and made it seem like life or death.  The shelter in Chicago appears very small from the outside but it is really well set up and CLEAN.  The staff there was extremely nice and helpful, allowing us to use their bathroom to clean up and use the potty.  They immediately took the poodle and started a bath for him.  They said they were going to bathe them all before even getting their paperwork done.  I don't blame them.  All the dogs were grateful to be out of the car, able to move around and stretch their legs.  I was just happy to be halfway clean and able to move my seat away from the dashboard.  You would think that would be the end of the problems.  My husband wrote down all the directions last night as our printer is currently on strike.  (something about low wages and poor working conditions)  By the time he got to the return directions, he apparently had a brain freeze as he left out one of the roads we were supposed to turn onto.  We were supposed to be on the road driving away from the shelter for 6 miles.  I don't know how long it was but I know it was a lot more than 6.  He stopped at a gas station to get directions.  Thankfully the owner was a foreigner.  They give the BEST directions.  (I've been on a lot of road trips and had to ask for a lot of directions, trust me on this one)  He told us to go back the other direction and get on the correct road.  (I thought it was odd that the directions said to get on INDIANA 294 when we were still in Illinois) Thankfully, after that, everything went smoothly, besides the whiny child who finally fell asleep about an hour from home.  We went to my mom's because I know it would be a nightmare if we didn't.  At this time, I still hadn't went to sleep and it was 3 in the afternoon.  After Rocco's opened, we ordered pizza.  (at five)  I think I made it to within a few minutes of my husband returning with the pizza before I fell asleep.  I woke up long enough to eat six or so pieces and then fell into a coma for six hours.  Eventually Jasmine crawled on the couch with me and went to sleep as well.  It took quite a while toget her to wake up.  I think she would've happily slept there till morning but my dogs hadn't been out to potty since 8am and it was 1am.  (can you believe no one had an accident)  Once we made it home, we realized we were completely out of dog food, so Shawn ran to Walmart (thank god for 24 hour walmarts) and I stayed at home with Jasmine, while she loves wallyworld, I was not about to put her back in that car after we had spent six hours none stop in it earlier in the day.  Throughout the entire car ride, I kept looking at the two dogs on my lap and thinking how long had it been since someone had spent more than a minute petting them.  How long since they had slept without twenty other dogs barking around them?  I don't think I stopped petting them the entire way there, which is saying a lot considering the state of the poodle's fur.  I wish I would've taken a picture of them all but it wasn't the first thing on my mind this morning.  We will NOT being doing another transport of this size without a cargo van again.  I personally will not be doing another one for at least a while.  And NEVER again will we take Jasmine with us.  It was just too much to deal with her and seven dogs for four hours and then just her for two more hours.  I have a Petsmart adoption event in the early afternoon tomorrow so I should get some (deep) sleep.  At least I don't have anything else to do for another week after that.